Because Chelsea Clinton is inexplicably a thing people are trying to make happen, she'll be publishing a children's picture book about influential women in history. The title, of course, is "She Persisted"--a reference to the rallying cry hatched after Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) was told to stop criticizing then-Sen. Jeff Sessions.
The book will profile 13 women, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Sally Ride, Ruby Bridges, and Oprah Winfrey. Hillary Clinton is likely to make a cameo appearance.Illustrated by Alexandra Boiger (Max and Marla), She Persisted will tell the stories of 13 women who overcame immense opposition to achieve their goals. The 13 women include Harriet Tubman, Helen Keller, Nellie Bly, Maria Tallchief, Claudette Colvin, Clara Lemlich, Ruby Bridges, Margaret Chase Smith, Sally Ride, Florence Griffith Joyner, Oprah Winfrey, and Sonia Sotomayor.
While I guess it's fine to make a picture book to inspire little girls, there is a notable absence of anyone to the right of the political spectrum. Oprah and Sotomayor are notable liberals, and with Hillary Clinton's reported cameo, roughly a quarter of the women profiled are explicitly left-wing. While Sen. Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME) was a Republican, she was a very moderate Republican and was hardly what one would call a conservative. Would it be too much to ask to see someone like Dr. Mildred Fay Jefferson or Rep. Elise Stefanik, or, heck, even Condoleezza Rice pictured as well? A children's book shouldn't be political (but the title of "She Persisted" makes it so, regardless of the stated intent--come on, now), but this is 2017 and apparently everything is.